Civ5's boring mid-game

[Ekmek]

Its probably been discussed before - I wish there was a stickied post - and I found this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/18rbr0/i_keep_losing_interest_in_playing_the_game_past/

But what do you guys do to avoid the boring mid-game?

I've found that the expansion and securing your core and turf is a lot of fun. But that is done by mid-game. By then you know if your going to win or not and it just feels dull or not worth continuing. Especially if you save the game at that point it doesn't seem appealing to come back to it.

tips I've seen are:
- start with a later tech
- higher difficulty

I'll throw in pangaea is more fun. I think about my most enjoy games and I realize the fun is usually when I share a continent with some successful AI.

One game, I had a great fight with Assyria (I was Germany) we we're friends until I moved next door after conquering Spain. We fought over cities for turns and it felt worth it each time.

That same game had the rare overseas fun where I had forces on Indonesia's continent but it wasn't strong enough to conquer them and they weren't strong enough to take me out (I think there was an AI bug there too though, they left a lot of units in port).

So I'm wondering if its the whole ocean aspect that throws off the game. The movement is too slow, distances too great, you have too few units to be effective. Could that be where the mid-game gets dull? By Civ5's handling of the naval side? Any other comments?

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Midgame is my favorite part of the game. Expansion is over, infrastructure is built, economy and happiness are fairly balanced, diplomatic lines are basically drawn, religions are spread, now you can start warring or wonder-pumping. It's usually the time when I feel like I can do things different than the last game and really choose my VC. The beginning build orders are fairly standard so it can be tedious getting through those turns and more often than not the last 30-50 turns are more or less next turn mashing to victory. Midgame is usually when you truly determine who's going to win or not. It's when I get to the end that I actually have a hard time finishing games.

I will admit slow embarked movement prior to researching steam does make crossing oceans a drag though, you're right there.

 

[Ekmek]

Midgame is my favorite part of the game. Expansion is over, infrastructure is built, economy and happiness are fairly balanced, diplomatic lines are basically drawn, religions are spread, now you can start warring or wonder-pumping. It's usually the time when I feel like I can do things different than the last game and really choose my VC. The beginning build orders are fairly standard so it can be tedious getting through those turns and more often than not the last 30-50 turns are more or less next turn mashing to victory. Midgame is usually when you truly determine who's going to win or not. It's when I get to the end that I actually have a hard time finishing games.

what level do you play out? which maps?

 

[danaphanous]

Hmmm. Yeah, I've had games that went down both ways. If the AI is willing to just let you sit there teching, building, and spamming wonders then it does get monotonous. I've found, especially on my immortal games that this never happens. I frequently get DOWed, especially if I'm doing well on often by teams of AI.

Personally, I think the expansion and territorial race is my favorite part too, but it's so dang slow in Civ V because of the global happiness nerf. A good improvement, but awful slow and tedious at times. You might want to try an epic or marathon speed as they're perfect for warring and also extend the territorial race part. then again, you might find it even more monotonous later. I, personally, have faced my hugest armies and most skilled foes on immortal and longer game speeds. My only Deity game they actually fought worse than immortal and just let me win, but I might've gotten lucky. My two closest neighbors hated each others' guts and the rest of the world hated them. Pretty easy to play against each other. Also, playing wider makes the expansion/building part of the game last a lot longer. My latest game I changed my religious strategy to grab as many happiness-boosters as possible and went as wide as possible before the industrial era. The religious help added an extra +4to5 happiness that I could produce per city and they appear to all be growing larger as a result. I might be able to go wide and tall in every city this game, but we'll see. Still a lot of warmongers in this world.

 

[Loucypher]

Play with mods. Seriously, they help. I've got mods boosting various obviously underpowered parts of the game, which enables me to play different from the Tradition Tall playstyle. I'm now in a game where I play as a Peacekeeper Japan - there are plenty of wars going on, and whenever a civ gets eliminated, I go in and liberate their cities. It's fun.
Roleplaying might also help, if you enjoy telling stories to yourself. Sounds weird to some, I know.

 

[Ekmek]

which mod are you playing peacekeeper?

 

[Loucypher]

which mod are you playing peacekeeper?

Meant that's the style of game I'm playing, not so much a specific mod, sorry.

 

[Ekmek]

I see. Yeah I do that too at times. Play the liberator. Also on real earth maps I try to be the "historic re-enactor" by taking over cities and renaming them and giving them to who should have it either historically or in the modern world today.

Still have to get over the mid-game hump to get in that mode.

 

[Loucypher]

I see. Yeah I do that too at times. Play the liberator. Also on real earth maps I try to be the "historic re-enactor" by taking over cities and renaming them and giving them to who should have it either historically or in the modern world today.

Still have to get over the mid-game hump to get in that mode.

That's what experimenting with mods enables. In my current midgame, there are plenty of wars, there's still some turf left to settle, the game keeps flowing. "Vanilla" BNW doesn't tend to provide that.

 

[DBuckner21]

I see. Yeah I do that too at times. Play the liberator. Also on real earth maps I try to be the "historic re-enactor" by taking over cities and renaming them and giving them to who should have it either historically or in the modern world today.

Still have to get over the mid-game hump to get in that mode.

Hi guys. Silly questions, I know. I've heard people talk about the real earth maps and having like 20 civ games. Are those real earth maps mods/downloads or are they normal maps? I have all the official DLC and I know of the one earth map, but it feels way to crowded even on the largest standard size for my taste. I also have tried Terra, but again way too crowded compared to something like Pangea in my experience.

 

[Ekmek]

try the True Start Location mods. This one is my favorite:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=397387

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

what level do you play out? which maps?

Immortal mainly, deity sometimes if I feel like I have the patience for number crunching. I hate the beginning so much. It's always about getting your first few cities down and cranking out the NC asap. Rarely much difference from one game to the next until the medieval era and even then it's mainly rush education and build unis. It's after that that I really think you get to start making more choices and have more options. Like I said the midgame is really where you truly get to start pursuing your VC and can fight wars on a more even footing. It's late enough that you've caught up and early enough that you haven't completely outclassed the AI yet.

 

[Jandos]

Midgame is fine. Late game when you just end-turning waiting for your last space part / tourism / nukes is boring

 

[haniblecter]

I dont think you guys are doing it right.

 

[docbud]

^^^Care to elaborate?

 

[Moriarte]

My games are never boring. Recently i started playing huge deity cont./pangaea (standard speed) and it's a ton of fun. I play domination only. Thing is: "huge" is a completely different deity. AI's tend to over expand. Some get hurt by it, but some actually do very well, whether it's science, war, diplo or tourism. In the end, you have to really plan ahead not to end up in a situation i ended up in last time i played.

t.260 After killing all civs, except for three:

Me: (Boudicca) 21 cities, 2k+ science, 700 gpt, 60 happiness (order), 20 bombers/fighters, fully promoted, logistics rocket artillery, tanks, nukes, the whole works.

Rome: 25 cities and 10% ahead of me in science. We share borders, BUT, my entire firepower is concentrated on Alexander.

Alex and me were at war for last 30 turns, and the man is invincible. Huge empire too. I drop a nuke on his head every turn. He doesn't mind and comes at me with another 10 landships/mobile sam and other units. His gold per turn is 1k and total cash is 29k and rising. I managed to capture 3 of his cities, but, clearly, nukes are underpowered VS Alex, as i can't move an inch further.

Meanwhile, Rome abandoned his life long idea of cultural revolution and starts building space parts at terrifying speeds.

Lastly, Isabella is untouched, but she is small.

Funny thing is, i was 99% sure i had this game wrapped, before i met Alex, that is..

I lose 50% of games with these settings, but they are fun and always last well into future eras.

So, maybe you should UP the settings?

 

[Ekmek]

Taking a lot of the good tips here I started an TSL YNAEM Greatest Earth Map game. I was playing as the Americans before which may have contributed to the lag feeling.

This time I did a renaissance start and played at King (I usually play prince which is a tad easy for me, I don't get much play time to hone my skill sadly).

With the more advance start I felt a new pressure. Not so much explore but really a race to get established before the higher techs kick in. If you start ancient the pace to build your country and techs are fairly matched and a bit slow. With te later star and having newer techs right around the corner added some more fun to the game. thanks for the tips!

 

[otaman1]

I think I've only finished about 6 games since the 2 years I had CiV. I usually start a new game when my current game gets too boring. The beginning of the game is my favourite part.

 

[danaphanous]

My games are never boring. Recently i started playing huge deity cont./pangaea (standard speed) and it's a ton of fun. I play domination only. Thing is: "huge" is a completely different deity. AI's tend to over expand. Some get hurt by it, but some actually do very well, whether it's science, war, diplo or tourism. In the end, you have to really plan ahead not to end up in a situation i ended up in last time i played.

t.260 After killing all civs, except for three:

Me: (Boudicca) 21 cities, 2k+ science, 700 gpt, 60 happiness (order), 20 bombers/fighters, fully promoted, logistics rocket artillery, tanks, nukes, the whole works.

Rome: 25 cities and 10% ahead of me in science. We share borders, BUT, my entire firepower is concentrated on Alexander.

Alex and me were at war for last 30 turns, and the man is invincible. Huge empire too. I drop a nuke on his head every turn. He doesn't mind and comes at me with another 10 landships/mobile sam and other units. His gold per turn is 1k and total cash is 29k and rising. I managed to capture 3 of his cities, but, clearly, nukes are underpowered VS Alex, as i can't move an inch further.

Meanwhile, Rome abandoned his life long idea of cultural revolution and starts building space parts at terrifying speeds.

Lastly, Isabella is untouched, but she is small.

Funny thing is, i was 99% sure i had this game wrapped, before i met Alex, that is..

I lose 50% of games with these settings, but they are fun and always last well into future eras.

So, maybe you should UP the settings?

That does sound epic! I have a question though: how do games last into future eras when space victory is enabled? Do you disable it? Bc with even a small empire and 3-4 cities you can build the parts as you tech and launch the thing only 1/2 of the way through the information era...

 

[beetle]

I think I've only finished about 6 games since the 2 years I had CiV. I usually start a new game when my current game gets too boring. The beginning of the game is my favourite part.

Have you tried upping the difficulty setting? The beginning is my favorite part too, but I only start to actually win towards the middle and end, so most games have me hooked throughout.